By definition, shipping is the ultimate offshore industry. For most, the business of shipping is largely invisible, literally beyond the horizon. I recently came across two representations of global shipping – a plot developed from ship’s logs from the 18th and 19th centuries and an animation of a week’s shipping traffic using AIS and satellite technology from FleetMon. It is interesting to see how much and how little has changed over the centuries.

The animation below represents ships traffic as recorded in one week in 2012. While not directly comparable to the plot above, several changes are evident. Obviously with the advent of powered ships, fewer are being caught in the doldrums. The change in traffic resulting from the Suez and Panama canals is obviously also hugely significant. The Southern Oceans have also become correspondingly far less crowded. Thanks to Billy Rudek for pointing out the plot on Facebook.